Newcastle manager concedes that club owner has made poor decisions because of
a continuing struggle to understand football matters despite good intentions

Mike Ashley’s impulsiveness and his continued failure to understand how football works despite six years as owner, has damaged Newcastle United, according to manager Alan Pardew.

Pardew both defended and criticised Ashley, praising his intentions, but not his decision making, while admitting the phenomenally successful owner of the Sports Direct chain does things that “aren’t brilliant for the club” when he is upset.

Pardew, though, believes Ashley, who has been advised on all football-related issues by new Director of Football Joe Kinnear since the summer, does want the club to be successful and has praised him for his support.

“Mike is a strong character,” said Pardew in an interview with Sky Sports. “He comes from a background of whatever he's done in his business career, he’s been a success. And when you come into football the logic doesn’t quite fit.

“There’s a way to run a business, and it can be any business – it can be a clothing business, it can be a car industry – and we have many of these people in the game now, don’t we, who have made their millions from mining etc, they’ve come from different fields, and Mike comes from a field where he’s been aggressive with his tactics in the sports world and it’s brought him huge success.

“He’s a genius when it comes to that world. That’s his world. This is not his world. But he loves football, trust me, and he wants Newcastle to do well. Why wouldn’t he?

“But he can’t understand the logic sometimes of how it works, and it confuses him and I think it upsets him, and sometimes when he’s upset I think he does some things that are not brilliant for the football club.

“That’s just Mike, but I can think of a lot of owners who are less good than Mike. And I think he’s funded the club. We’ve got no debt other than to Mike, so we’re not in a bad position, but we’re not where our fans want to be.”

Newcastle’s lack of external debt has been boasted about in the past, but that made the failure to spend any money on permanent signings in the summer even harder for supporters to accept given the extra income generated by a new television deal.

Indeed, the suspicion is, Ashley has started to take back the £140m he loaned the club in his first three years and is only doing enough to make sure his investment is not damaged again by relegation to the Championship.

Newcastle supporters are planning a protest march before the team’s game against Liverpool on Saturday calling for Ashley to sell the club.

Sparked by the appointment of Kinnear and the fact he signed just one player in the summer to strengthen a squad that finished fifth from bottom last season, striker Loic Remy on loan from QPR, the protests are a sign the general ill-feeling towards Ashley is coming to the boil again.

There were similar marches and calls for Ashley to go in 2008 following Kevin Keegan’s resignation and again less than a year later when Newcastle were relegated.

“All I know is that Mike is very supportive and very focused on trying to make Newcastle a success,” said Pardew.

“He’s been good with me in terms of trying to support me in what I try to do and I thank him for that.

"We were after flair players and when you get into that market as a Premier League club, you have your league and divisions like the Bundesliga chasing them because they are a rare commodity, so it is difficult to get them over the line.

"Loïc Remy has been a great signing and given us what we didn't have last year, which is a striker who can play, build the game and finish, while he has a nice manner, is comfortable with our group and has the confidence to play for Newcastle, too.

"But Mike has put in about £200m of his own money and I don't think he wants to put any more of his own money in."